Global Food & Agriculture Memo: Afghanistan Expanding Pomegranate Farming, Launching $12 Million U.S.-Funded Marketing and Export Program

Ali Akbar, an Afghan pomegranate seller, arranges his product during the World Pomegranate Fair in Badam Bagh Farm in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov 20, 2008. Afghan officials have launched a marketing and export campaign for the fruit in the hope that it will give farmers an alternative to growing poppies. (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool.)

Afghanistan has been producing the ancient fruit, the pomegranate, know as the Anar in the various regional tribal language spoken there, for about as long as the ancient country has existed in its many forms, from Kingdom to colony and now potentially budding Democracy.

The fruit however has historically been produced by Afghanistan's farmers primarily for national consumption and limited export to neighboring countries, despite the country's capacity to produce enough of the fruit for export.

Today many government officials and others in the country believe and hold out hope that exporting pomegranates could be a positive replacement for Afghanistan's current number one export crop -- the opium poppy.

And such an initiative was announced last week in Afghanistan.

With the help of a $12 million initiative funded by the United States, Afghanistan's government, farmers and others are planning to improve and expand pomegranate farming and processing in the country and launch a global export industry and marketing program designed to sell lots of Afghanistan-produced pomegranates throughout the world, as well as to attempt to position the ancient fruit long-grown in the ancient land as the best pomegranate on the planet.

Last year, Afghanistan exported its first pomegranates to outlets of the French hypermarket chain Carrefour in the Kingdom of Dubai, according to a report by the Associated Press. The fruit, larger and redder than many pomegranates imported from Turkey or North Africa, was a hit. Carrefour, which is the world's second-largest retailer after Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., quickly placed orders for all its Middle East stores, according to U.S. funders and Afghan officials.

This successful effort served as the impetus for the newly launched $12 million, U.S.-funded improvement, marketing and export plan.

Read the story, "Afghanistan markets its brand of pomegranates," from the Associated Press here

Opium production and export has long plagued Afghanistan. And in recent years the production of the crop has soared because the now re-emergent Taliban group is using the growing and sales of the poppy to fund there attempted return to power in the country and war against the elected government and U.S. and NATO troops.

The government under elected President Hamid Karzai has been reluctant to launch a mass poppy eradication program in the country because like it or not, without the poppy crop not only would there be millions more impoverished people in already impoverished Afghanistan, but the central government's major source of revenue besides U.S. aid, taxes paid by citizens, (few people pay taxes in the country but without the poppy crop even fewer would) would likely disappear.

President Karzai has long been arguing for financial assistance to build Afghanistan's agricultural sector. At one time the country was a solid agricultural producer in the region, before the war in the 1980's with the then Soviet Union, before the Taliban took over following that war, and before the current war following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. But that's been decades ago now -- decades of war and destruction of the country's infrastructure, which wasn't exactly good before that.

Many analysts and others are skeptical is an agricultural improvement, exporting and marketing program can work in the war-torn country, as you can read in the AP piece. However, Natural~Specialty Foods Memo believes it is well worth the $12 billion effort.

We also think the west, the U.S., Canada and Europe, where pomegranate sales have soared in the last few years, should do everything the nations can to open the door to the Afghanistan-grown fruit. After all, it is in the U.S. and Europe where most of the illegal drugs produced from Afghan poppies are bought and used.

The U.S. government under current President George W. Bush has been very vocal about wanting programs to eradicate the opium poppies in Afghanistan. Therefore both the U.S. and Europe should become part of the potential solution, the building of Afghanistan's agricultural and food industry starting with the pomegranate, by doing all that can be done to speeding up the process of allowing Afghanistan-produced pomegranates into the western markets.

Earlier today we wrote and published this piece, " about California-based Paramount Farms and its success in branding and marketing fresh pomegranates and value-added pomegranate products like fresh juice teas and other items under the POM Wonderful brand. William Phillimore, the company's executive vice president, was in Kabul, Afghanistan last Wednesday for the launch of the pomegranate export and marketing program, a marketing effort the California company might play a part in.

Phillimore, who works for the company most responsible for boosting consumer demand for pomegranates and pomegranate-based products in the U.S., said at the kick off event: Afghan pomegranates are "as good as anything I've tasted," adding that he thought there is plenty of room in the U.S. market for pomegranates exported from the country, despite the fact Paramount Farms is the largest U.S. grower of domestic pomegranates.

While Afghanistan remains a war-torn country, and in fact all signs are that things are about the worse they've been in the ancient land since the now resurgent Taliban were defeated in 2002, we think it important that initiatives such as the $12 million pomegranate marketing and export plan be initiated. Afghanistan needs economic development programs like this to build not only its economy but also its civil society. The people need reasons not to support the Taliban, and jobs, a decent economy and the civil society that comes with those things are just as important as winning in combat in terms of the outlook for and ultimate state of the country.

After all, it was such a vacuum that was created not so long ago right after the former Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan that paved the way for Taliban rule, which not only created a totalitarian state but also wiped out any economic progress the country had made prior to the war with the former Soviet Union, which of course we all know today as Russia.

Therefore we cheer the pomegranate export and marketing program. And having eaten an Afghanistan-produced pomegranate, we can tell you they indeed are delicious and of a very high quality, which is distinguished by the bright purple color and smoothness of the ancient fruit produced for so long in the ancient land of Afghanistan.

Additionally, on average, Afghanistan's farmers make about $2,000 per acre with pomegranates, versus $1,320 per acre growing opium poppies, according to currently available data. Therefore, if the west opens its markets to pomegranates grown in Afghanistan, the economic premium of producing the fruit over the poppies could, with this expanded export market and thus increased demand for pomegranates, serve as an economic incentive to get the country's farmers to switch from growing poppy to pomegranate. It's worth a try.

Food & War Memo: A Thanksgiving Day Feast On the Front Lines in Afghanistan

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Editor's Note:

American soldiers (and those from numerous NATO nations), both volunteer, full-time military and volunteer members of the National Guard, have been fighting the war in Afghanistan for about eight years now, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once said about the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are "going to be a long, hard slog." They have been and are. It was one of the few things former Secretary Rumsfeld said about both wars that's turned out to be true in fact.

As America celebrates the Thanksgiving holiday today, we feel it important to take some time to think about the nearly 200,000 active-duty, full-time soldiers and volunteer National Guardmen and women currently in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the tens of thousands more serving in other parts of the world. We offer a 'Thanksgiving' to each and every one of them, along with our hopes and prayers for their safety while serving, as well as for safe return home when their respective tours of duty are over.

Ann Marlowe is a New York writer who is currently on her fourth tour of duty as an embedded (traveling with the troops) correspondent in Afghanistan. Forbes.com published an excellent piece today, Thanksgiving Day, written by Ms. Marlowe, about the soldiers serving in Afghanistan and the food they eat, particularly today on this American holiday centered so much around food and family.

It warms our hearts to see, based on Ann Marlowe's report, that the American troops in Afghanistan are eating pretty well this Thanksgiving Day. While a good holiday meal in that far away and dangerous land hardly compares (or compensates for) to the fortunes of most of us who are able to be spending the holiday at home with family and friends, it does offer our troops a touch of home in the form of food and celebration as they serve bravely and proudly in a land that has known war for centuries. Good food can help warm the heart after all.

Godspeed to the brave. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Below is Ann Marlowe's story:

Commentary
Lobster In Kandahar
Forbes.com
By Ann Marlowe
November 27, 2008

Dinner on the front line.

CAMP WALTON, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan-- Blackened trout with a squirt of fresh lemon, orange rice, and spinach leaves, followed by a Granny Smith apple and an ice cream sundae--that probably isn't your idea of an Army meal, particularly on a base in Afghanistan. But it was what I ate a couple of weeks ago at the DFAC (dining facility) at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Salerno, though I was able to resist the sundae bar at the last minute.

A few nights later, I enjoyed excellent barbecued chicken, turkey wings and mashed potatoes, courtesy of Sgt. Felipe Vega at Tani District Center. This base holds only a couple of platoons of American troops who live alongside the Afghan National Police and guard the local government center. Most of the food here is canned or frozen, and there isn't any fresh fruit.

Laboring under severe supply constraints, Vega rustled up a breakfast of delicious scrambled eggs and hash browns from the unpromising pre-packed dehydrated eggs and hash browns the Army provided. Sgt Vega is the most talented cook I've encountered in three visits to Khost's district centers, though Terzayi's cook merits praise as well

Army food was something I'd dreaded when I signed up for my first embed in summer 2007. I'd grown up on my dad's World War II Army stories featuring his constant state of hunger and the wretchedness of the rations…when he had them at all. He was proud of the Bronze Star he won for being in one of the first boats to cross the Rhine into Germany, but the downside was being ahead of the supply lines for a month in a Germany near starvation.

When I entered the DFAC in the small, remote base at Mehtar Lam in eastern Afghanistan for my first embed, I was amazed to find four entree choices. And usually one was pretty good. There was lobster and king crab on Fridays, and I hadn't even seen king crab claws since my childhood--where does the Army get them?

Then I got to the DFAC at the mother of all American bases in Afghanistan, Bagram, where they served lobster every day. (I haven't seen it at Bagram or Salerno during this embed--maybe it's seasonal? Apparently the Army is offering lobster because it's cheaper than steak these days.)

By now, on my fourth embed, I'm as familiar with Salerno's DFAC as I am with the restaurants near my West Village home in New York City. My friend Kim Barker of the Chicago Tribune recently noted that embeds have spa-like elements (early rising, encouragement to exercise, no alcohol and a culture of constant hydration.) Only the food is the opposite of spa cuisine--heavy, permeated with red meat, low on greens and high in carbs and refined sugar. In other words, what most Americans eat.

Predictably, given the heavily Southern demographics of the U.S. military, the best entrees tend to be Mexican or Southern food. Any barbecued avian is a good bet, the chili is delicious and the taco meat tolerable. I first realized how good turkey wings can be at Tani. In a considerate gesture to Afghan employees at Salerno and the frequent visits by local Afghan government figures, kebabs appear every few days and rice nearly daily. As a rice eater myself, I am grateful. Other ethnic foods are in scant supply. There are occasional egg rolls, which I've avoided, and no sushi or kimchi--this will probably have to wait another 10 years.

The DFACs are best on breakfast and dessert. At the district centers, soldiers sometimes are left to fend for themselves at breakfast--think Pop Tarts and dry cereal. (Ever read the list of ingredients on a Pop Tart? I made that mistake and have been unable to eat one since.)

The big FOBs offer a carb minefield, so to speak, including delicious buttermilk biscuits, french toast, waffles and sometimes extras like chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate sauce. After staring at them at Salerno for a couple of days, I broke down and tried one, but luckily it was dry and hard.

My favorite combination is a two-egg omelet with cheese and peppers, one biscuit and a piece of fruit. The fruit, like everything else, is flown in, not bought locally, so you find incongruities like rock hard American cantaloupe at a time when superlative Afghan melons are ripe. But fears about poor sanitation, tampering and corruption mean that all purchasing is done centrally.

If you're not a 20-year-old soldier going out on air assaults carrying 130 pounds of equipment, food and water, the DFACs can be a severe threat to your weight. Both Bagram and Salerno feature sundae bars with several flavors of Baskin Robbins, whipped cream and chocolate and caramel sauce at every lunch and dinner. I can skip the sugary fruit pies, but there's one dark chocolate pie that's competitive in the civilian world, and the cookies are pretty good.

I told my host at Mandozai and Tani, Capt. Ricardo Bravo, that I found the Salerno desserts tested my willpower, and he replied with some asperity, "A soldier is supposed to have self-control."

At the Kandahar DFAC that the British and Canadians use, on the other hand, the cakes look dicey and don't taste very good--and there's no ice cream. No self-control necessary.

The worst features of Army food are dairy and vegetables. None of the American bases have decent cheese--it's either Yellow or White. They don't even have yogurt at every breakfast. But chunks of excellent blue cheese are, mysteriously, available at lunch and dinner at Kandahar, alongside the usual Yellow and White. Apparently it alternates with Camembert. I found that crumbling it over the spaghetti from the pasta bar, and mixing in some surprisingly tasty sauteed spinach, produced the sort of dish I might have enjoyed fixing for an evening in at home.

Vegetables at American DFACS are usually dreadfully overcooked and bathed in oily liquid, with the exception of some perfectly cooked, sprightly broccoli I recently had at Salerno. (The corn niblets probably don't have much more nutrition, but they bring back childhood memories.)

Salads are pathetic, 1970s era artifacts like tomato and cucumber in too much dressing, and coleslaw is counted as a vegetable. Kandahar has a larger, fresher selection of vegetables, although there's a tendency to off-key combinations--chopped green beans, kidney beans and onions, anyone?

The best base for coffee lovers is far and away Kandahar, which not only offers free espresso drinks from machines in the DFAC, but boasts a Tim Horton (Canadian) and two Green Beans (the American equivalent, found at all the big FOBs). In the district centers you are usually going to be drinking bad, watery American coffee unless someone has invested in an espresso machine--or unless you have a cook or soldier from Puerto Rico who will make thick, dark coffee.

Needless to say, you will not find a selection of wines or beers at any base in Afghanistan; U.S. soldiers are forbidden to drink while deployed. They can order non-alcoholic beer, though, and last night at FOB Walton in Kandahar Province, home to a polyglot, multinational team of 30-some soldiers mainly involved in training the Afghan police, some men drank fake beers while eating a credible Tex-Mex dinner (rice, refried beans, barbecued beef, carrots.)

I asked the night's chef how he made the canned carrots so palatable. Sgt. "Top" Burek explained, "The key is to drain all the water and bake them. At the FOBs they boil them." FOB Walton is run by Col. John F. Cuddy on highly democratic lines, where even lieutenant colonels share dishwashing duties and the men who are the more popular cooks rotate duties. Besides Burek, Capt. Matthew Ryan is one of the favorites.

For Thanksgiving, Ryan says he will prepare cornbread, squash if possible, and assorted pies, in addition to the classic turkey provided to all American bases. He will use as many fresh ingredients as he can. Ryan, a New York state National Guardsman from Buffalo who serves both as an intelligence officer and Civil Affairs chief, explained, "I did a reforestation and some wells at Blickkilli Bazaar--so I feel confident sending my men there."

Ryan, a part-time tree farmer, is used to making from-scratch meals. His Thanksgiving meal last year featured a 41-pound free range bird raised by a friend. But he has had to adapt to local conditions. "Usually it's like Rachael Ray's cooking--she doesn't start with anything raw. You start with Triscuits and Cheez Wiz and you make a meal."

[Ann Marlowe, a New York writer, has just completed her fourth "embed" in Afghanistan.]